


A Family Reunion

by quicksilversquared



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, the family ships it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-13 06:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15358557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilversquared/pseuds/quicksilversquared
Summary: Adrien gets invited to join Marinette and her family for a Cheng family reunion in Paris. Marinette's family is friendly and welcoming, of course- there's no surprise there- but for some reason, they seem convinced that he's dating his friend.Why? Adrien has no idea. Really.





	1. Chapter 1

As the semester drew to a close and summer loomed on the horizon, Adrien found himself dreading the break. It wasn't as though he was going to miss having classes, or homework, or any of that, but for him, _summer_ meant a distinct lack of hanging out with his friends.

During their first week off, all of Adrien's friends were going to be free to hang out, since they were all in town and didn't have anything else they needed to do. But Adrien would be busy nearly the entire week, with a large chunk of his time filled by photoshoots for the upcoming summer line. Normally his photoshoots were more spread out as to not overburden him, but they had all been pushed off to accommodate his final projects and tests and none of them could be delayed any longer thanks to magazine publication deadlines.

So basically, his friends would be in town and free to hang out, but he wasn't.

By the time the week was done and his run of photoshoots were over (there would, of course, be more photoshoots and filming for ads later on in the summer), his friends would all be taking off or otherwise occupied. Nino was visiting family in Morocco for a chunk of the summer and Alya had managed to snag a reporting internship in London for most of their vacation. Even Marinette would be busy for the first part of the summer, since her extended family was coming to Paris for a week and then she would be busy for part of another week with sitting in on negotiations for Jagged Stone's new line of sunglasses. She wouldn't be saying much, of course, but she was going to be designing the glasses and the rock star (or, rather, Penny) thought it would be a good experience for her. She would probably be pretty busy for another couple weeks after that getting primary designs ready in between her other duties with babysitting and helping out in the bakery. Even Ladybug had warned him that she might not be able to get away for patrols as often as she had been during the school year, at least during the first part of the summer. She had family visiting, she had explained, and it would be hard for her to slip away unnoticed until they left. Chat Noir had tried not to let his disappointment show as he nodded in understanding and quickly changed the topic.

Yeah, summer was going to _suck_.

 

* * *

 

Chat Noir leapt over the rooftops, enjoying the wind in his face as he vaulted into the air. He hadn't been able to transform for fun and just get out and _run_ during revisions and finals, so now that his tests were done and he only had a couple days of _very_ relaxed classes left to wrap up the year, he could enjoy the freedom the suit gave him. Maybe he would even see Ladybug again, though he didn't know whether or not her school was on the same schedule as his. For all he knew, she might still have a week and a half of tests remaining before she would be free for the summer. There was no way of knowing-

"Chat Noir!"

-or maybe he could just ask.

"Ladybug!" Chat Noir exclaimed, spinning around as his partner came running up. She had a grin on her face as she bounded up to him. "Are you done with finals?"

"Yup!" Ladybug said as she landed in front of him and straightened up, beaming. "And you?"

"Yes!"

"Do you want to do a patrol, then?" Ladybug asked. "Or do you have other things you want-"

"Patrol," Chat Noir said quickly. He had originally hoped to hang out with his friends during the evening hours, but they all had been busy. If Ladybug wasn't busy, he would _definitely_ jump at the chance to hang out with her all evening instead. Maybe they could just hang out for once instead of running around, or maybe they could stay out late and do both.

Thankfully Ladybug didn't seem at all off-put by his enthusiasm. Instead, she laughed. "Patrol is good. I really wanted to stretch my legs after studying all week."

Chat Noir bowed grandly, grinning at her. "Then lead the way, My Lady."

 

* * *

 

The raced around the city in almost record time, doing flips and fancy leaps as they went to blow off all of their extra energy. Once they finished, they settled on top of the Eiffel Tower to watch the traffic below.

"I'm _so_ glad summer vacation is practically here," Ladybug said with a happy sigh, leaning back against the beams. No doubt the metal would be uncomfortably hot if they were civilians, but the suits protected them from the heat and cold. "No school, no tests, no missing classes, getting to hang out with my friends..."

Chat Noir stayed quiet. He didn't want to complain about _vacation_ , of all things, especially when Ladybug was clearly so excited about it.

"Are you looking forward to it, Chat Noir?" Ladybug asked, just like she had when it was almost Christmas. Chat Noir winced. Just like the last time, he didn't exactly have a cheerful response to her question.

"Not...exactly?" Chat Noir admitted. He didn't want to rain on Ladybug's happiness, but they _were_ friends and she _did_ ask. Out of everyone in his life, Ladybug was the one person that he never wanted to lie to. "I'm going to be busy the first week, when all of my friends are free, and then once _I'm_ free they're all either busy or out of town. I'll find things to do," he added hastily as his partner's brow creased. He didn't need to make Ladybug worried about him. He would still be able to text his friends, of course, and he would be able to see Mariette every once in a while after her family reunion was over, and even more often once she was done with Jagged Stone's meetings. He could always hang out with his other classmates, too. He didn't know them as well (well, except for Chloe, but he'd rather spend his summer alone than have to deal with Chloe clinging to him for days on end), but they were still friendly enough. Maybe he would be able to play video games with Max and practice enough that he might have a shot at beating Marinette by the time she was free to hang out again.

Ladybug still looked worried.

"I'll spend some time _paw-_ trolling the city," Chat Noir said before Ladybug could say anything. "It'll be fun. I'll surprise some kids."

"Chat..."

"By midsummer, at least one of them will be free," Chat Noir assured her. The fact that the one friend that would be free was the one that occasionally had trouble stringing a sentence together in front of him was irrelevant, at least for now. Ladybug didn't need to know _every_ detail, and he was sure that he could get through to Marinette eventually. They had made a decent bit of progress recently, at least. "I'll be fine."

"If you say so." Ladybug didn't look convinced, but at least she was willing to drop it, at least for the time being. Somehow Chat Noir suspected that she would end up over-extending herself a bit to see him even when she was busy. He would have to make sure she didn't. He was used to being alone, after all, and he _did_ have Plagg and his phone. He could still text his friends, even if they might take the entire day to respond.

"So you said that you have family coming to town, right? Chat Noir asked, trying to steer the conversation away from himself. Maybe he could get Ladybug to forget about his summertime woes. "Are you looking forward to that?"

Ladybug bit her lip. "Yes and no," she admitted. "There's a lot of people I've never met before, and some of them don't speak French very well. I'm nervous about it, because I don't want to just hang on to my parents for the entire time. One of my friends does speak Ch- er, their language, though, and he'd be all alone that week since our other friends are gone and I'm busy, so my parents said I could invite them to our family gathering if I wanted to."

"Are you going to?"

There was a pause as Ladybug thought, fidgeting along the ledge. "I want to," she finally said. "My parents really like them and they got along pretty well with one of my relatives when they came to visit once, but I haven't invited them yet."

Intrigued, Chat Noir twisted in his seat to look at her. Ladybug _never_ talked about her civilian life this much, and he wanted to learn more. Why was she hesitating about asking a friend over? "Why haven't you asked them yet? I'm sure they would love to spend the time with you." Heaven knew that he would jump on the chance to hang out with Marinette during her family get-together. He could translate, if necessary (of course, the last time it had turned out not to be necessary, but he'd certainly had a lot of fun), and if it was a Dupain-Cheng get-together, there would be plenty of delicious food, and of course, he would get to hang out with one of his best friends. He wasn't about to invite himself, though. There was no _way_ he was going to risk wearing out his welcome.

Ladybug worried her lower lip, letting it slide through her teeth. Chat Noir tried not to stare. "I keep trying to ask, but something always happens. Class starts, or one of our other classmates gets their attention, or I just get nervous about asking and end up talking about something else instead. And now school is nearly over for the year, but what if I can't work up the courage to ask before then?"

"You could call them on the phone," Chat Noir suggested, scooting over to try to see if he could "accidentally" bump Ladybug's feet with his own. He wasn't going to ask about why she needed _courage_ to have a friend join her family. Maybe this _friend_ was more the friend of a friend and she didn't know them well. Maybe they had been rude about stuff like that before- no, that didn't make sense. Ladybug didn't seem like the kind of person to tolerate a rude friend. His first theory was probably closer. Chat Noir knew perfectly well that there were some classmates of his that he might be a bit nervous approaching, since he didn't know them that well even after a year in the same class. "Or text. It might make it easier. Either way, I'm sure they'll accept. You'd make anyone's day brighter, My Lady."

"It's not like I would be transformed, _chaton_. I'd just be my civilian self."

"Ah, but you don't need your spots to be _miraculous_ , bugaboo," Chat Noir teased, bumping her shoulder gently. His own grin broadened when he saw her smile grow at his words.

"The spots make it easier, though."

"They don't change who you are." Emboldened, Chat Noir leaned to the side, just a little, letting his weight rest gently against Ladybug's shoulder. "Are you going to ask?"

Ladybug shifted but didn't push him away. "Yeah. I'm nervous, sure, but I don't want them to have a crummy summer when I could have done something about it but was just too scared to."

 

* * *

 

Marinette glanced over at Adrien as they ate lunch. Today was the official last day of school, though they had all finished their exams two days prior. It was nice to have a couple days where they could all hang out together before people had to scatter for the summer. There were a few empty seats- Chloe had left for a cruise, and Kim and Alix had decided to skip to race each other around the city- but most of the class was present. Alya and Nino had happily been discussing their summer plans, but Marinette wasn't really listening. Instead, she was watching Adrien's reactions.

Adrien was trying to smile, he really was. He was trying to be excited for them, but it wasn't quite reaching his eyes and his smile was strained around the corners. He couldn't quite forget that their adventures would have the unintended side effect of leaving him alone for most of the summer.

Marinette bit her lip. She should just _ask_ , she knew she should- there was no _way_ Adrien would say no- but she would probably stutter, and Alya would tease her, and _oooh_ , her family was going to tease her as well, weren't they? They would probably ask Adrien if they were dating and she wouldn't be able to head off the questions because she wouldn't understand them and then Adrien would know about her crush on him and then things would be all awkward again-

But if she didn't ask him, he would be sad and lonely. Maybe she could just wait and take Chat Noir's advice and ask Adrien by phone. She would text, so that she wouldn't have to deal with the possibility of leaving _another_ embarrassing voice mail (she had gotten better at talking to Adrien and having an actual conversation with words that made sense and that were in the right order, but when she got nervous her words started to get away from her and she would start babbling again. And asking Adrien to hang out with her family- like a _boyfriend_ might, when she wasn't inviting anyone else- was something that made her nervous).

"You can't put it off forever, Marinette," Tikki sighed later that day as they stared at Marinette's phone. Together they had written, re-written, re-re-written, and re-re-re-written a text to Adrien inviting him to the family get-together. "It's not fair to Adrien. Don't you want him to stop being sad about the summer sooner? Just send it."

"That's cheating." Marinette saved her text and set her phone down. "I just- what if it's too forward? What if I've been reading him wrong? What if he already has other stuff planned and he feels obligated to come and hang out with me instead? He would, he's just too nice like that-"

"You are _not_ reading him wrong," Tikki said sternly, flying up in Marinette's face. "Adrien is not a _complete_ pushover, and I'm sure that if he doesn't want to spend the _entire_ week with your family, he'll say so."

Marinette wasn't entirely convinced. "Still..."

Tikki _growled._

"Marinette! Time for dinner!" Sabine's voice floated up through the trapdoor, distracting Marinette before she could get _too_ startled by Tikki's uncharacteristic show of annoyance. "Come on down!"

"Coming, Mom!" Marinette called back. She headed for the stairs, then paused to hold open her jacket for Tikki to fly in. "Come on, Tikki. We need to go down."

"Actually," Tikki started, eyeing the phone Marinette had abandoned on her desk. "Go on ahead, I'll stay up here. I'm close enough to you in case an akuma attacks."

Marinette shrugged, clearly not suspecting anything, and clattered down the stairs. Tikki waited until the noise downstairs had given way to conversation and the sound of forks on plates, and then she dove for Marinette's abandoned phone. She unlocked it quickly, swiping to Marinette's texts. She knew she shouldn't- Marinette really needed to be able to do these things by herself, she _knew_ her Chosen could do it- but she also knew that Adrien was absolutely dreading the summer and he would be _thrilled_ to get the invite.

Tikki pressed _send_.

 

* * *

 

Adrien stared at his phone, barely able to believe his eyes. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again.

The text was still there.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Adrien finally asked Plagg, holding out his phone. "I'm just seeing things, right?"

Plagg grumbled, rousing himself from his nap on top of a runny round of Camembert cheese and squinting at the phone. "It says: 'Hi Adrien, this is Marinette. My parents and I were wondering if you would be interested in joining us for our family reunion.' If that's what you're seeing, then yes, I am seeing what you're seeing."

"Wow." Adrien pulled the phone back to his chest, staring at it. "What do I say back? Yes, of course, but how excited should I come off as? I don't want to freak her out with too much enthusiasm, but, like, what do I say? Should I capitalize? Use punctuation? Do I thank her now, or when I get there, or both times? I need to thank her parents, of course, and- oh! I'll need to buy them a thank-you gift, I can't show up empty-handed-"

Plagg blinked up at his panicking Chosen as he continued to completely overthink the invitation to an almost _alarming_ degree. At this point in his life, Plagg would have thought that Adrien would have accepting invitations down to a science, but apparently he had yet again overestimated Adrien's social competency.

Fine. Clearly he would have to _help_. He'd better get a whole lot of cheese in return.

Plagg swiped Adrien's phone while the boy was still distracted ("And I don't even know what they would like! I can't just get them gift cards, that's _tacky!_ ") and started texting Marinette back.

_I would love to come over for the reunion! Tell your parents I said thanks! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox <3<3<3_

"-and it would be even tackier to ask about clothing sizes if I wanted to buy Marinette's mother a dress or a coat or-AAAAAA! Plagg, what are you doing with my phone?" Adrien's eyes went huge as he caught sight of his kwami serenely tapping away at his phone. He swiped it away quickly, eyes skimming over the message Plagg had typed out. Plagg watched in amusement as Adrien's shoulders slumped in relief as he realized that Plagg hadn't actually sent anything (yet), and then immediately tensed up again when he noticed the line of x's and o's (and the hearts) at the end of the message.

Ahh, but it was _so. much. fun_. to screw with his Chosen from time to time.

"You- you can't just _do that!_ " Adrien yelped, scrambling to erase the x's and o's. "She's a friend, not a girlfriend. That would just freak her out!"

"I bet she wouldn't mind," Plagg said, knowing full well that Adrien's friend definitely _would_ mind and would probably freak out if she ever received a text from Adrien with "hugs 'n kisses" attached to it. He would give a day's worth of cheese- actually, no. He wasn't willing to part with that amount of cheese no matter what. He would give a _third_ of his daily cheese to be a fly on the wall in Marinette's room had Adrien accidentally sent that text with the x's and o's still attached.

"But the rest of the message is all right, I guess," Adrien said, skimming over it with a critical eye. He was probably looking for any hidden messages that Plagg might have slipped in. "And I can ask Marinette for details tomorrow when all of us get together between my photoshoots."

And still his thumb hovered uncertainly over the _Send_ button. Plagg was tempted to bite him, just so he would jump and accidentally sent the _perfectly fine_ text to his not-girlfriend. It would make this whole process a whole lot painful to watch.

"Should I ask about bringing a gift?" Adrien asked after another moment's pause. "Or should that wait?"

Plagg snorted. "You could bring _me_ a gift of cheese. I don't think they expect anything. They're asking you to hang out, not come to a housewarming party or baby shower. Bring yourself."

"But..."

"You didn't bring anything special the time you went over to play video games," Plagg pointed out. He groaned when Adrien didn't look convinced. "Fine, fine, _whatever_. Bring something if you want, but don't go too extravagant or you'll make our friends think that _they're_ expected to bring something fancy whenever they visit your place."

Adrien's shoulders finally relaxed as he glanced over at Plagg. "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense." A pause. "So, like, what kind of flowers do you think I should bring?"

Plagg could only groan.

 

* * *

 

On the first day of the Cheng family reunion, Adrien showed up at the Dupain-Cheng's front door ten minutes early, then spent eight minutes pacing anxiously back and forth while fretting all the while.

"I should have asked about a dress code," Adrien worried aloud, picking at the collar of his freshly laundered green button-up. It was short-sleeved, good for the steamy Paris summer weather, but still dressy. "What if I underdressed? This isn't anywhere near nice enough to pass in any sort of fancy dress _anything_. It might have been better if I wore the other slacks instead, and my nice dress shoes-"

Plagg, who had long since abandoned his hiding spot in Adrien's bag in favor of lounging on an awning (and who had long since gotten very, _very_ fed up with Adrien's overthinking the invitation from his friend), sighed loudly. " _I_ am pretty sure that you're far more likely to be overdressed. Isn't this thing in the park?"

"That doesn't mean anything," Adrien responded automatically, tugging on the hem of his shirt to straighten it. "I've seen plenty of fancy parties in the park before. Maybe I should go home quick and change now before they see me-"

"And then you would be late and _incredibly_ overdressed," Plagg drawled, wriggling so that the sun hit him just so. "At least wait to see them first before you go back to change clothes. _Again_."

"But-"

"Do you _really_ think Marinette's family is the type to go crazy dressing up?" Plagg demanded, finally fed up with Adrien's indecisive blithering. It was exhausting to listen to, and the kwami was about 95% certain that he wouldn't react the same way if it had been Nino or Alya's family inviting him over. The difference was...interesting, to say the least. Plagg couldn't _possibly_ fathom why Adrien might act so differently around Marinette's family. "They seem pretty laid back to me. I really doubt that their get-togethers would be anything like Chloe's parties."

Adrien paused.

"That...that is true. But it's not just Marinette and her parents," he pointed out, resuming his pacing just as suddenly as he had stopped. "I don't know what the rest of her family is like at all. I've only ever met her great-uncle before, and from what I've heard, there's a lot more of them than just him. It's an _extended_ family reunion."

Before Plagg could reply, the door flew open and Sabine stuck her head out, beaming as she caught sight of Adrien standing there. "Adrien! You should have rung the bell! How long have you been waiting out here for? And so dressed up as well! You look very nice, dear."

"I arrived a bit early and didn't want to impose," Adrien managed as Sabine ushered him inside and up the stairs to their apartment above the bakery. "And I wasn't sure if there was some sort of dress code for this event. I forgot to ask about that before."

Sabine looked startled for a moment. "Dress code? Oh, we don't have one. I'm sure a few of the aunts and uncles will be all tidied up, but most everyone else will be wearing t-shirts and shorts."

"I told you so," muttered Adrien's collar.

"Marinette is running a little behind this morning, but we'll be heading over to the park soon enough," Sabine told Adrien as they mounted the last step and headed for the living room door. Sabine led Adrien in. "Tom! Look who I found outside!"

Tom was standing over by their kitchen counter, organizing the baskets of bread and bowls of food sitting there. At Sabine's call, he looked up and grinned at the sight of Adrien. "Hey! I'm so glad you could come, son. Marinette has really been looking forward to this now that you're going as well."

Adrien blinked, startled by the endearment, but he managed a smile all the same. Thankfully Tom didn't seem to notice anything amiss with Adrien's response and after sending another wide smile Adrien's way, he returned to organizing the food that they were bringing to the reunion picnic. Sabine joined Tom at the counter, leaving Adrien standing a bit awkwardly in the middle of the room. He fidgeted, unsure if he should offer to help. Tom and Sabine seemed to have a plan for where everything went and he didn't want to mess up their system. His eyes flicked up to the trapdoor to Marinette's room, hoping she would appear soon. His hopes were answered moments later as the trapdoor banged open and Marinette came flying down the stairs, running straight into Adrien in her hurry. Adrien's arms went around her automatically, trying to keep them both upright as he stumbled backwards. It only took them a moment to steady themselves, and then Adrien released Marinette so she could step back.

Marinette's cheeks were pink in embarrassment as she untangled herself and took several quick steps back. Adrien gave her a moment to collect herself as he took in her outfit. She looked nice, as she always did, and it looked like the pink sundress she was wearing was one of her own designs. It had definitely turned out well. As talented as Marinette had been when Adrien first met her, she had definitely improved even more over the past year. While his father would probably be able to pick out tiny flaws in the dress, Adrien couldn't see any mistakes in the design, the sewing, or the embroidery.

"Nice of you to join us, Marinette," Tom teased her as he folded a cloth over the top of a basket full of bread. "Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Good- good morning," Marinette managed in return, blushing pinker yet as she caught sight of Adrien's amused expression. He promptly tried to arrange it into something more neutral, not wanting to embarrass his friend.

"Sit down and have a late breakfast, then," Tom said, waving a hand at the partly cleared counter. "We have croissants and jam. Adrien, would you like some as well?"

"If it isn't any trouble, sir," Adrien said immediately, trying not to perk up _too_ much. He definitely wanted a croissant (or two or three), but he also didn't want to inconvenience Marinette's family at all. If they only had enough croissants out for Marinette to have, he could wait until they got to the park to sample some of their amazing baking.

Tom chuckled, steering both teens over to the counter. "Oh, no trouble at all. We have plenty of baked goods here, after all. Eat all you want."

Ten minutes later, Adrien found himself wishing that he hadn't eaten _quite_ so much. They had just finished arranging their food on one of the tables that had been set up for the reunion, and there were a _ton_ of things that Adrien wanted to try. Marinette's great-uncle had clearly gotten access to a kitchen, because he was just finishing arranging several delicious-looking platters and bowls down at the far end of the table. There were other dishes set out as well, ones that Adrien assumed were from the other members of Marinette's family that had already arrived. A fairly large group had gathered in the middle of the park- a _surprisingly_ large group, actually- and Adrien caught snatches of conversation in Mandarin. Most of it was going by so quickly that he missed all but a couple words.

Adrien gulped. He had sort of envisioned himself listening to and contributing to the conversations with- well, not with _ease_ , maybe, but without _too_ much difficulty. Clearly that wasn't going to be the case. He was good at Mandarin (at least according to his teacher), but he wasn't _that_ good. He might be able to pick up on a general topic of conversation if people were talking at that speed, but specifics? He didn't have a chance. But this was Marinette's family he was talking about. They would probably slow down if he and Marinette wanted to join, right?

Next to him, Marinette followed his gaze. She looked just as apprehensive as Adrien felt. "They talk really fast, don't they? Mom taught me a couple words and phrases that she thought might be useful, but I don't think that's going to help much."

"We probably talk fast in their eyes, too," Adrien said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. He unconsciously moved a bit closer to Marinette. She and her family (and her great-uncle) were the only people here that he knew at all and he _really_ didn't want to get separated. "Uh...anyone here that you recognize besides your parents?"

"Great-Uncle Cheng," Marinette said immediately. "And, uh..." Her eyes scanned the crowd and she bit her lip. "Um."

"Do people not visit often?" Adrien would have pegged Marinette's family to be the sort that would be close-knit. Of course, the international distance and language barrier would probably be a bit of a barrier to that.

Marinette made a bit of a face. "Not really? Dad's side of the family visits all the time since they all still either live in or near France, for the most part, but they aren't coming to this reunion because we see them all the time anyway," she explained. "And there's fewer of them, too."

"There's a lot more people than I thought there would be," Adrien commented as he looked over at the group again. That was a _lot_ of people. "So is it, like, really extended family or something? It must be."

Marinette shook her head, then paused, then nodded, then shook her head again before shrugging at Adrien's confused look. "I'm not sure how distant some of my relatives are. But they aren't all _blood_ relatives, either! Some are family friends that are so close that it's hard to know who is and who isn't related. I'm pretty sure that at least half of my 'cousins' on my mom's side aren't actually cousins, but it doesn't really matter. It _does_ make it hard to get to know everyone, though."

"But your mom knows them," Adrien noted as he watched Sabine wade into the assembled group, greeting people left and right. Tom followed her, smiling and waving as people greeted the two of them.

"She saw a lot of them pretty often as a kid," Marinette explained as they slowly approached the group. Adrien noticed a couple curious glances in their direction. "And she takes trips to China every few years. Papa usually stays behind to run the bakery and I, well." Marinette shrugged, looking a little sheepish. "I stay behind for school. I could go, but I...I just don't particularly _enjoy_ sitting around not understanding anything while everyone is chatting."

"Understandable." Adrien reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. "I can translate for you- that is, if I can keep up with what they're saying."

Marinette turned pink for some reason, but gave his hand a squeeze back anyway. "I'd like that. Thanks."

 

* * *

 

Thankfully, Marinette's relatives seemed more than willing to slow down their conversations so Adrien could understand. They even paused to give him time to translate for Marinette. They were really very friendly and interested in what he did, and they didn't seem to mind repeating themselves whenever he missed a word (which was embarrassingly often).

The only problem with them was that they seemed determine to misinterpret Adrien's relationship with Marinette.

Adrien could see where they might have gotten the wrong impression initially. He was the only friend of Marinette's to come to the reunion, and he and Marinette _had_ been kind of been holding hands for a short while after they first arrived. He was more or less attached to Marinette's side (to be translator, but her family hadn't known that at first), which also wasn't exactly helping dispel the misconception that he was dating his friend. Almost every relative of Marinette's that they met started out with saying "Sabine didn't tell us that Marinette had a boyfriend!" or something else along those lines, and then Adrien was left to stumble over his Mandarin (initially half-forgotten from nerves), trying to find some way to say that no, they weren't dating, but yes, Marinette was very cute and was a wonderful person. Every time, Marinette stood off to the side as that conversation went on, looking stuck somewhere between puzzled and frustrated that she couldn't understand, because there was no _way_ Adrien was going to translate that particular conversation.

The friendship between him and his friend had only _just_ managed to get back on track after the ill-fated gum incident and things seemed to be going spectacularly well between them today. Adrien wasn't about to risk making things weird between them again.

"I'm not gonna have to study Mandarin at all this week, I think," Adrien joked as he and Marinette took a break from socializing to go peruse the tables of food. "I think I've learned a dozen new words just this morning, not to mention all of the conversation practice."

"Do you still have a lot of lessons during the summer?" Marinette asked as she piled a couple cookies onto her plate.

"Not rea- actually," Adrien corrected himself. "I still have my regular lessons. I just don't have school classes. So I still have Chinese, piano, fencing, and basketball- well, technically basketball isn't lessons so much, but I do occasionally have to go early to practice with the coach. And Nathalie will probably give me a few review lessons so I don't forget stuff over the summer, and...I _think_ that's it."

Marinette looked a bit dazed.

"I might start up karate again for the summer," Adrien added absently, remembering a half-heard conversation between Nathalie and his father. He had been glad to quit karate when he started school, since he had quite enough on his plate as it was (the addition of both school and superheroing filled his schedule up pretty well), but it might come in handy when he was fighting as Chat Noir. "So...I guess that's technically considered a lot of lessons?"

"That's so much," Marinette breathed, wide-eyed. Her cookie hung in the air, forgotten. " _Wow_. I usually just sleep and help out in the bakery."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe," Adrien said with a laugh. "You're trying to tell me that you don't spend hours and hours designing and sewing during the summer, even when you don't have commissions to do? That you don't spend a ton of free time babysitting so you can have extra cash to buy fabric? That you don't get together with Mylène and Rose and Juleka and Alix and-"

"Okay, maybe I do a _little_ more than sleep and work the counter," Marinette acquiesced with a laugh. "But it's all stuff that I don't _have_ to do if I don't want to. It's not all scheduled like yours."

Adrien shrugged. He didn't particularly think that his schedule of activities was all that impressive. Nathalie was the one who set it up, after all. "So? That doesn't make it any less important. You're a go-getter. I mostly just do what I'm told to do. I think only the basketball and fencing were things that I picked out, and even with those I got a list of approved activities to pick things from. And besides, didn't I hear something about you working with Jagged Stone to design some new glasses for him this summer?"

Marinette lit up and she nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I've already got some preliminary designs from ideas I came up with on my own, but I still need to clean them up and make some prototypes- after I make sure that they're what Jagged Stone wants. It's a lot of fun, since Jagged's style can be a bit out there and I kind of have free rein to do anything, as long as it's colorful and fun."

"And colorful and fun is exactly your style," Adrien finished. He definitely liked Marinette's style. It was a lot more playful than his father's, though she was still completely capable of pulling off designs for more formal occasions that still kept that same playfulness to them. If she ever branched out into designing for boys and men, he would _definitely_ be interested in wearing something she made.

Marinette nodded and looked like she was going to say something else, but then she caught sight of someone coming up behind Adrien. "Great-uncle Cheng! How are you?"

"Oh, very good," Wang Cheng replied with a broad smile. It spread wider when he noticed Adrien standing there. "Adrien! How is your Chinese coming along?"

"It's getting plenty of practice," Adrien admitted with a grin, making sure that he didn't speak too fast. It was nice of Marinette's great-uncle to make the effort to speak in French, though he suspected that it was more for Marinette's benefit than to give his spinning head a break.

"I can see that," Mr. Cheng said with a laugh. "It is difficult to talk in another language for a long time, yes?"

Adrien nodded fervently, getting laughs from both Marinette and her great-uncle.

"Will you be coming the rest of the week as well?"

"That's the plan, I think," Adrien said a tad nervously, glancing over at Marinette. She nodded minutely. "I don't know what all is going on besides this, but, uh..."

"There's a tour around Paris tomorrow, I think," Marinette chimed in. "Ending at a restaurant in the evening, I think. And after that...I really don't know."

"Brunch at the Grand Paris the next day," Mr. Cheng said. "And possibly a board game day in the afternoon. Although I hear that you both like video games?"

Both Adrien and Marinette grinned at that. "I think we might want to avoid Mega Strike if we don't want to scare everyone else off," Adrien joked, grinning. Alya and Nino both refused to play the fighting game against either Adrien or Marinette because it was impossible to win. If the point of a game day was to have nice, non-competitive fun, then...well. Mega Strike definitely wasn't the right choice. On top of that, someone might have to restrain Marinette so she wouldn't get overly competitive. Adrien had learned the hard way that Marinette could be just as bad as Alix and Kim when it came to video games.

...whether or not she was just as bad when it came to board games, he didn't know. He supposed he would learn.

"And then the next two days are unplanned, in case of weather," Mr. Cheng finished. "Or if people find things that they want to do. Too much planning is, ah..."

"Stifling?" Adrien suggested, before realizing that Mr. Cheng might not know the word. He scrambled for another word. "Uh..."

"Yes, that sounds correct," Mr. Cheng decided after a moment. "Not enough choice to explore."

"And I think a lot of us will be wiped out by halfway through the week," Marinette said. "Too much visiting, too many names to remember, too many new faces..."

"Too much talking in another language," Adrien added with a laugh.

Mr. Cheng grinned. "Yes, that as well." Behind them, someone called his name and he glanced back. "I have to go for now, but I will see you later in the week?" Once he got their nods, he smiled again and waved before heading back to joining the group of adults.

"Do you need a break before we go back?" Marinette asked, pausing before she took another bite. "You've been translating all morning."

"A break would be good," Adrien admitted. "My brain is goo right now. It's fun to be able to talk to your family and learn about them, but it's also stressful trying to think up the words and everything. I can't wait until game day. Hopefully there won't be too much translation necessary during the game itself."

Marinette's face lit up with a worryingly competitive look. "Yeah! Now that Great-uncle Cheng mentioned it, I remember my parents talking about game day. They were talking about what games we could play. There were definitely some of my favorites on there."

"Play nice," Adrien said, half serious and half joking. "Let other people win for once."

Marinette stuck her tongue out, and Adrien grinned. Sassy Marinette was the best Marinette. She seemed to forget her nerves around him then. "Never!"

"Are you two having fun?" Sabine asked, coming up to join them. She had a plate of her own, filled with significantly less sugar than Adrien and Marinette's plates. She raised an eyebrow at their sweets-laden plates and both teens grinned a bit sheepishly. "Adrien, I hear you're quite good at Mandarin. All of the relatives keep telling me how great you are."

Adrien couldn't stop the blush that swiftly took over his face. He ducked his head, embarrassed. "They've been very helpful. Everyone talks slower and repeats themselves when I don't understand something they said. I would have been lost if I tried to keep up with a normal conversation."

"Yes, I quite agree. They slow down for me as well." Sabine took a bite of her pasta salad and smiled at Adrien fondly. "But I'm guessing you needed a bit of a break?"

Adrien nodded fervently. Sabine laughed.

"There's a few of Marinette's cousins that are trying to learn French. They would probably love the chance to talk with you guys." Sabine scanned the group, then pointed at a small cluster of teens huddled under a tree. "They aren't as good at French as you are at Mandarin, but they would probably love to try."

"We can go over there once we finished eating," Adrien promised. "I remember what it's like, trying to hold a conversation in a language I barely had a grip on. And it'll be nice to talk to some people closer to our age."

"It'll be nice to be able to understand most of the conversation without translation," Marinette said as her mother wandered back off again. "Not that I don't appreciate you translating!" she added to Adrien quickly. "It's just, well..."

"It's definitely not the same as being able to actively participate in the conversation," Adrien finished for her. "No worries. I definitely know the feeling. I've traveled other places before and had to have a translator, and I _hate_ it. I mean, having to rely that the other person is actually translating correctly and not omitting anything? It always seemed like their conversations were _way_ too long for the amount of information that was getting translated back to me."

Adrien tried not to wince as he said that, knowing full well that he definitely hadn't translated everything that Marinette's assorted family members had said. He hadn't wanted to translate their assumption that he and Marinette were dating- it was , and there were a few other quick remarks that he hadn't translated, either. And then the first time that he came to translate for Marinette's great-uncle, he hadn't been the best at translating the conversation that he had to Marinette. Of course, it ended up not being necessary in the long run, so no translation had been necessary at their dinner, but still. Adrien could only guess how frustrated his friend must have been before her great-uncle revealed that he could speak a bit of French.

He would do better. Even as exhausting as it was to speak another language all day, he wouldn't slack off on his translating duties during the rest of Marinette's family's get-together for anything.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this particular story is a three-parter, if I'm remembering correctly. It's another one of my stories that I started several years back and never quite finished until now! (I'm slowly working my way through my stash of ancient stories, yay!) I'll post the other two parts in between chapters of HTFAM.
> 
> As always, reviews are much appreciated! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Adrien showed up five minutes early on Tuesday, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. They were still _nice_ , of course- pretty much everything he owned was designer, and impeccably tailored to boot- but they were _much_ more casual than the outfit he had worn the previous day.

He had realized once he got home that, besides making him completely overdressed, his button-up shirt and slacks had been pretty much been the stereotypical 'meet-the-girlfriend's-family' outfit. There was no way to undo that first impression (not that it should be _that_ big of a deal, now that he had corrected people- or tried to, at least), but it was just another reason to go more casual.

"Come on in!" Tom's voice called, and Adrien jumped and looked around. He didn't spot Marinette's father, which was odd.

"Look up," Plagg suggested, and Adrien did. Sure enough, Marinette's father was waving at him from the third-floor window. Adrien waved back and followed Tom's instructions. It didn't take him long to jog up the stairs and join the family at their kitchen counter. Sabine pushed a plate of toast towards him as soon as he sat down.

"We were just talking about how we're going to do today," Tom said as Adrien spread jam on his toast and started to eat. "The family is a little too large to go places all as one group, so we were talking about splitting it up into two groups."

Adrien paused mid-bite. He had an inkling about where this was going, and while it made sense, he didn't particularly like it. If he was the one translator in the group and he had to leave for an akuma attack, he would be leaving Marinette in charge of a group she couldn't communicate with very well. "...okay?"

"Sabine and I would lead one group, since Sabine knows Mandarin and I don't," Tom continued. "You, Marinette, and Wang would lead the other. We would also put Marinette's cousins- you know, the ones you were talking with yesterday- in that group. That way, you have a group that's a little more able to take care of themselves if something happens, like an akuma attack."

"That...sounds doable," Adrien said, chancing a glance at Marinette to see her reaction. She was watching him, which made Adrien think that she and her parents had already talked it over and their plan hinged on whether or not he was comfortable with it. "Do people know about the akuma attacks? I know Mr. Cheng didn't seem familiar with them at all when he first arrived."

Sabine cringed, and Adrien wished that he hadn't added that last part. It was probably still a sore spot that Marinette's great-uncle had been turned into an akuma such a short time after he arrived in Paris. Still, Sabine answered. "We mentioned it yesterday, yes, and it sounded like my uncle had brought it up before they left. I'm sure people will still panic a little if a supervillain gets too close, though."

"People who have lived here their whole lives still panic quite a bit," Adrien pointed out, remembering all of the times he and Ladybug had to put their fighting on hold to usher a few terrified civilians out of a building. It didn't happen for all supervillains- some had less of an effect on the general populace than others, and then there were some of the supervillains that people were just curious about until they got a little too violent. "Hopefully there won't be any akuma attacks while they're here."

"Yes, we hope so as well," Sabine said, filling a cup with juice and passing it over to Adrien to have with his toast. "But it's best to be prepared. We told everyone yesterday to just get out of the way if there's an akuma in the area, and all of them seemed to understand. You shouldn't run into any huge problems, even if there _is_ an attack."

Adrien still couldn't help but feel a little nervous, even knowing that his group probably would be able to take care of themselves in the event that an akuma showed up. His absence would definitely be noticed unless the group scattered. And if the group scattered, his translator abilities would probably be needed even more.

He would just have to hope that nothing happened.

 

* * *

 

Their group got through a tour of the Eiffel Tower, a walk around the Arc de Triomphe, and were about halfway through a tour of Notre-Dame when Adrien's phone beeped a warning about an akuma. Suppressing a grumble, Adrien pulled out his phone and scanned the announcement. The akuma- Linecutter, it was called- was apparently making its way through Paris' main tourist attractions, sending dozens of terrified visitors fleeing in all directions. Adrien could only guess from the name and targets that Hawkmoth's most recent victim was probably a tourist fed up with the lines. The victim probably hadn't made any advance reservations or pre-ordered tickets-a necessity during the summer months in Paris- and had probably been set off by seeing people who _had_ made those prior purchases getting through long before they did.

"Marinette, there's an akuma," Adrien murmured, tugging on his friend's arm. Her head snapped around to stare at him. "It's headed this way. If there's a safe room here-"

"There's probably a few rooms that are out of the way," Marinette said. Her expression had turned anxious as soon as what he had said sunk in. "We can ask a worker. Really, there should be some sort of alert system here so tourists can be alerted before an akuma gets here."

Adrien nodded in agreement. As Marinette headed over to the nearest worker to ask about where people should hide, Adrien worked on rounding up their group. He cast a nervous look over his shoulder as he heard the first screams. They were muffled, still outside the building, but definitely close. He would have to slip away soon.

"Is there an- what do you call it- an _akuma_ attack?" one of Marinette's cousins asked. "Should we be leaving?"

"Just follow the cathedral workers," Adrien said, pointing to the man Marinette was standing by. He was waving at the groups milling around and pointing towards a staircase as he called for people to follow him. "He'll take everyone somewhere where the akuma probably won't go."

The girl nodded, and then she joined the rest of the group, passing Adrien's instructions on. Adrien watched as Marinette's relatives murmured among themselves and then turned as one to follow the guide. Wang Cheng led the group, and Adrien brought up the rear, where it would be easiest to slip away. He couldn't tell where Marinette had gone, but she was probably hidden among her family members. Even if she wasn't, Adrien didn't need to worry. Marinette could take care of herself. She was usually the one to lead evacuations at school, after all.

As the group rounded the corner, Adrien caught sight of a sign for the bathrooms. He paused, and then dashed towards the abandoned bathroom. The door closed a little too loudly for his comfort, but they were in the middle of an evacuation. Hopefully no one would come investigate.

"Time to transform, Plagg," Adrien said, opening his bag and shaking the tiny god out. He glanced around one last time to make sure no one was nearby before he transformed. "Hopefully Ladybug is nearby. I want to get this fight over with before too many people notice that I'm missing."

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, Ladybug _was_ nearby. She was already locked in battle with the akuma when Chat Noir arrived on the scene.

"I thought you were going to be busy this week!" Chat Noir exclaimed as he batted away a flurry of admission tickets. At one point he would have been weirded out, but he had long since gotten used to weird and unexpected things being weaponized.

Ladybug spared him a glance. "I was in the area. And you must have been too, I'm guessing? I only just got here."

"Uh-uh-uh! No questions about my wanderings as a civilian, my Lady!" Chat Noir teased. "...but yes, I was in the area."

He didn't miss the way Ladybug's lips curled upwards in amusement at that. The next moment, she was all business. "The admission tickets pack more of a punch than it looks like they could. I saw them knock a _car_ several meters down the road."

"Avoid getting hit. Got it." Chat Noir flipped easily out of the way of another flurry of tickets and landed lightly on top of a lamppost. He glanced over at Notre-Dame and then back at Ladybug. "How fast do you think we can get this finished? I'm a little worried that the people I was with will notice that I'm gone and ask questions."

"Yeah, same here." Ladybug unhooked her yo-yo from her hip and started to spin it. "This guy doesn't seem very smart. If we keep moving and move fast, we can probably confuse him and get in a hit."

Chat Noir nodded, focusing in on the akuma. They could do this. They would take down the akuma with the same single-minded focus that they always did, and he would get back to Marinette's family before they could even notice that he was gone.

Hopefully.

 

* * *

 

Adrien groaned as he checked his watch as he jogged down the hallway in Notre-Dame. The fight against Linecutter hadn't been the longest that they had ever had- it definitely wasn't even _close_ \- but it hadn't been their shortest fight, either. It had taken nearly thirty minutes to tangle Linecutter up and break the possessed item. The akuma had been a little more slippery than Ladybug and Chat Noir had originally anticipated, but at least it hadn't wanted to flee and hide from the fight like some akuma sometimes did. Still, the fight had gone on for long enough that he was fairly certain that his normal "bathroom" excuse would get a response of raised eyebrows and questions about whether or not he had some sort of stomach ailment.

"Adrien! Over here!"

Adrien turned to see several of Marinette's cousins waving at him. Their parents stood behind them, looking equal parts concerned and amused.

"I'm so sorry, I went to the bathroom during the evacuation and then I couldn't figure out where everyone was, so I just stayed there until the fight was over," Adrien fibbed quickly, pasting on his best innocent smile as he joined them. It felt a little strained around the edges.

"Uh-huh, sure," one of the girls drawled. "You know, Marinette showed up just a minute ago with the same excuse. She vanished at the same time you did, too."

"And we all know that that isn't at _all_ suspicious," her sister finished with a wide smirk, ignoring Adrien's puzzled expression. The whole group of cousins giggled, some of them wriggling their eyebrows at each other. This only seemed to increase their hilarity, much to Adrien's continued confusion. He wasn't sure what they were implying.

"A word of advice, young man," one of the nearby aunts said in between her giggles. "If you're going to sneak off with Marinette to cuddle and whatnot during akuma attacks, you need to get better at excuses and you _definitely_ need to stagger when you leave and return more. I don't know how your friends haven't noticed already. Good job on not looking like you just spent half an hour making out with Marinette, though."

"Yeah, I need to know how you do it," another cousin added in. She glanced over her shoulder towards her mother, making sure she was out of earshot. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. "The lips are _always_ what gives me away when I go make out with my boyfriend. So, how-"

"All right, guys! We're going to move on and explore the Palace of Versailles," Wang Cheng called, drawing the attention of the entire group. Marinette stood by his side. "Do we have everyone now?"

There were noises of assent, and then the group started moving. Adrien quickly detached himself from the group of cousins and busied himself with rounding up the back of the group, head spinning. They thought that he had taken the cover the akuma evacuation provided to sneak off with Marinette and... well, by the sounds of it, they thought that he and Marinette had spent the entire time _kissing_.

Apparently his efforts to straighten out the mistaken impression that he and Marinette were dating had all been in vain. Clearly no one in Marinette's family believed him in the slightest.

He had to admit, though, that it _did_ sound a little suspicious. Two teens, vanishing at the same time for half an hour and then reappearing within minutes of each other? And on that note, what had _Marinette_ been doing during that time?

 

* * *

 

Adrien managed to avoid further questioning from Marinette's second cousins for the rest of the day. Thankfully, the akuma attack had happened mid-afternoon and after their last tourist stop, it was time for the whole group to reunite for dinner. With the much larger group all together, it was easy for Adrien to hide among the assembled adults.

"I heard that you guys ended up being near the akuma attack," Tom said when he spotted Adrien. "Did everything go all right?"

"Oh yes," Adrien said quickly, hoping that Tom hadn't heard _too_ much from Adrien and Marinette's group. He really didn't need Tom thinking that Adrien was trying to secretly date his daughter. He rather liked his friend's parents and _really_ didn't want to get on their bad side because of a simple misunderstanding. "I got the alert on my phone before the akuma reached the cathedral and Marinette alerted one of the workers so they could guide everyone to safety before people started panicking."

"Very good," Tom commented. "...and I also heard that you and Marinette went missing for a bit?"

_Shoot._

"I needed to use the bathroom and I didn't know how long the akuma attack would be going on," Adrien said, using the same excuse he had used a million times before. It hadn't worked on Marinette's extended family, but maybe that was just because they were determined to see a relationship between the two. "I figured I could probably catch the tail end of the tourists going into the safe room, but by the time I was done the entire place was on lockdown, so I just hid in the bathrooms until Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated the akuma."

"Always a good plan not to go venturing out during an attack," Tom commented. "And I wouldn't be surprised if Marinette might have tried to get a glimpse of the akuma to get a photo or two for Alya. I've heard that Alya was very concerned about how her time abroad will impact the Ladyblog."

"Oh, she figured that out a couple weeks ago," Adrien said immediately. "Alya asked one of her friends in her journalism club to take over the Ladyblog while she's abroad. She asked Marinette and I, but I wouldn't be able to get away if I had something scheduled-" lies, since he could and _did_ get away every time there was an akuma attack, but that was neither here nor there- "and Marinette babysits all the time, so she can't exactly go charging around after an akuma."

"Thank God," Tom said emphatically. "I'd have a heart attack if Marinette was out there running around akuma attacks like Alya does. She's always been good about helping others get out of the way and then staying hidden herself."

Adrien blinked. While he rarely saw Marinette hanging around during a fight, he _definitely_ saw her pretty regularly after the battle was over, even when the akuma attack had been nowhere near where she normally would be. He had figured that she was just better at staying out of sight- and out of trouble- than her best friend was. Still, Adrien wasn't going to say anything to her father about that. As long as Marinette practiced common sense and stayed out of the akuma's way most of the time- which she clearly _did_ , with the possible exception of that time with the Evillustrator- then there was no point in causing her parents unnecessary stress.

He _did_ wonder if Marinette's parents had ever found out about that particular "date", though.

The group headed down the sidewalk en masse, heading towards the restaurant that they had selected. It wasn't a fancy restaurant- in fact, it was one that Adrien had never been to, because his father preferred fancier venues. It made sense that the Cheng family would go there so that they wouldn't break the bank eating out, but Adrien had to absently wonder what Wang Cheng would think of the food.

At the restaurant, Adrien stuck to Marinette's side as they found their seats. He had noticed that she looked like she was flailing a bit whenever she was left to face her family on her own, and he didn't want her feeling lost like that all through dinner. Sure, maybe she could sit by her mother or great-uncle instead... but maybe Adrien wanted to spend more time with his friend.

Yes, he knew that that would just spur on the rumors. No, he didn't particularly care. Sure, it was a bit embarrassing that Marinette's family members were assuming that he had spent the entirety of the akuma attack making out with his friend, but it didn't really matter, not in the long run.

Besides, it was worth it. A little bit of teasing in return for getting to hang out with one of his best friends and her family for an entire week?

 _That_ was a deal Adrien would take any day.

"My dad wasn't bugging you, was he?" Marinette asked anxiously as they settled down in their seats. "He likes teasing my friends sometimes."

"He was just asking about the akuma attack," Adrien assured her. "I'm sure they were worried our group, but everyone stayed well out of the way."

Marinette looked mildly guilty for a moment, and Adrien wondered again where Marinette had been during the attack. He suspected that Marinette's father was right about her sneaking off to get photos for Alya, but if she had then Adrien would have to get her a medal for staying out of sight and out of harm's way, because he had not spotted her at _all_ while fighting Linecutter.

"I just hope that none of our group gets akumatized while they're here," Marinette said. She snagged a menu from the middle of the table and opened it. "That wouldn't be any fun."

"No kidding." Adrien knew that if one of the group got akumatized, it would be _really_ hard for him to get everyone herded away safely and then escape himself, all without being spotted or attacked himself. "We'll just have to hope for the best then, I guess."

A waiter arrived, taking in the large group with a wince. He started taking drink orders and Adrien turned his attention back to the menu, reading over Marinette's shoulder. There were a few things that looked good, honestly, and he couldn't decide between them.

There was a background hum of conversation at the table as people perused the menu. Some of it was just translating the menu so people could decide what to order, and some of it was talk about their day. Adrien just let himself soak it in, too used to silent meals at an empty table.

If it wasn't so rude to do so, Adrien would be tempted to invite himself over to Marinette's house to join her family for dinner more often. They talked to each other, having proper _conversations_ rather than just rattling off a schedule for the rest of the day before vanishing off into the next room. It made the meal more than just a chunk of time to sit down and eat so that he wouldn't be hungry later on.

Adrien used to have proper family meals like that, before his mother went missing. Not every night- sometimes his parents were busy or out of town- but often enough.

"Adrien, did you decide what you want?" Marinette asked, turning to him. She looked startled to find him so close to her, right behind her shoulder. "I'm torn."

"There's two things I'm torn between," Adrien admitted, leaning back a little so he wasn't in Marinette's space _quite_ so much. He pointed to the two things he was looking at. "They both look so good!"

Marinette giggled. "Those were what I was looking at, too," she admitted. "They sound so good!"

Adrien looked over at her, then back at the menu, an idea forming in her mind. He had sometimes shared his food with his parents- well, his mom, mostly- when they went out, so they could try out more than one dish. If Marinette would be comfortable with that, then they wouldn't _have_ to choose what to order. "Do you want to order one and I'll order the other and we can share?"

For a moment, Adrien wondered if he had said something wrong- if there was some social cue that he had managed to miss as usual. Marinette's eyes had gone wide and her mouth hung slightly open. Then she gave herself a little shake and hit him with a dazzling smile.

"Sure, let's do that!"

"Great!" Adrien grinned back at his friend, oblivious to the looks they were getting from the rest of Marinette's family.

This was going to be a _great_ meal.


	3. Chapter 3

"Adrien! Stop throwing bananas at me!"

Adrien snickered as he messed up Marinette's run once more. The Cheng family reunion's Game Day was off to a _great_ start. He and Marinette had joined several of the younger relatives in playing Rainbow Road and after Marinette soundly beat all of them during the first round, Adrien had decided to hold her back as much as he could. If that meant unfairly targeting her instead of trying to win himself, then so be it. At least the others had a chance of winning.

"Adri _en!_ " Marinette complained again, even as she dodged another banana on-screen.

"Just trying to even the field a little," Adrien said with a laugh. Marinette didn't sound upset, not really. She just elbowed him with a laugh, sending his cart careening, and then she took the opening to go tearing up the track, making up for lost ground quickly. Adrien didn't have a chance at catching up to her, but even the best cart steering in the world couldn't make up for the ground Marinette had lost with Adrien's sabotages. The other carts had all just crossed the finish line when Marinette came tearing up the track.

"Rude," Marinette grumbled, sticking her tongue out at Adrien. Still, everyone in the room could tell that she wasn't _really_ upset. From where they sat over at the table nearby, Sabine and Tom could both see the small smile on her face. They both watched in amusement as Adrien repeated the tactic on their next round, which had the result of Marinette elbowing him more and more often as she tried to get far enough past him to avoid his blocking attempts. Adrien was doing this best to steer despite the jostling that he was getting.

"They _are_ cute," one of Sabine's aunts said quietly with a laugh. "Are they always like this?"

"No, this is _very_ recent." Sabine watched her daughter giggling as she and Adrien came in last again. Adrien looked just as amused, not at all bothered by the elbows he had gotten to the ribs. "Marinette could barely talk to Adrien earlier this year. It took them being thrown together several times before they got comfortable. I think hanging out together all day on yesterday and the day before really made a lot of progress."

It had been pretty spectacular to watch, actually. Sabine had guessed that a lot of her daughter's nerves before came from the fact that she had been trying to ask Adrien out rather than simply _interact_ with him, and it seemed that she was right. Why, only the previous night, Adrien and Marinette had shared their meals with each other, eating off of each other's plates with barely a blush in sight. There had even been a bit of low-key fork fencing as they jokingly fought for the last bites of each dish.

Perhaps it was a little too early to design a croquembouche tower for their wedding, but Sabine was pretty certain that that was what she had spotted her husband sketching on a napkin the previous evening.

"From looking at them right now, you would think that they've at _least_ been friends forever," another aunt commented. "And it was the same last night. But yes, I can tell that they were not as comfortable with each other at the picnic as they are now. They'll be dating by the end of the week, don't you agree?"

There were some murmurs of agreement from around the table. Beside Sabine, Tom looked puzzled. He could no doubt understand Adrien and Marinette's names (Sabine thanked any higher powers that might exist that the music from the video game was loud enough for Adrien and Marinette not to hear) but the rest of the conversation was a mystery to him. She would just have to fill him in later.

Five rounds later Adrien dragged Marinette away from the video games, clearly in hopes that she might be less competitive with a board game. Sabine muffled a snort. She was fairly certain that Marinette didn't _do_ less competitive. She could lose and still have fun- Tom and Sabine had raised her too well for Marinette not to be gracious about losing- but Marinette did not often lose.

...it was possible that a family reunion game day wasn't the best idea ever. Sure, it didn't require a whole lot of _conversation_ , but it was possible that people might not want to lose to Marinette over and over. At least Adrien was willing to act as a bit of a buffer to distract Marinette. They were a good match for each other, their personalities balancing each other out. Complimentary instead of opposites, which meant that they got along _fabulously_ now that Marinette wasn't stuttering.

If they weren't dating by the end of the summer, then Sabine would be _very_ surprised.

There was a squeal from the group on the floor, and Sabine looked over to see the plastic mechanism of their Mousetrap game clattering down. One of the cousins was groaning, and another looked quite smug.

Clearly board games had been a good choice.

"I had to keep Lui from filling her entire suitcase with her favorite games," Zhang Jie told them with a laugh. "She had left no space for her own clothes! And then she tried slipping some of the games in _my_ suitcase. I had to explain that you would have games here that she could play."

"But now she wants you guys to come visit soon so she can show off all of her games," Wang Jie added. "You three and 'Marinette's boyfriend'."

Sabine couldn't help making a face. "I don't know if Adrien's father would let him leave the country with us. He's quite protective." _Too_ protective, in her opinion- Adrien seemed quite a capable, responsible boy- but she supposed that she had to take into account the fact that his mother _had_ gone missing in the past year. "But I'd love for us to be able to come and visit again at some point. It's been too long."

"Well, just tell him that Adrien will be in good hands, then," Lu Lin insisted, and Sabine held back a groan. She had been hoping that her aunt wouldn't get involved at all. While Lu Lin _meant_ well, she sometimes didn't _quite_ manage to step back and really listen to others. "Just tell him that he's too protective, and his son will grow up better if he's allowed to travel. What's he afraid of, anyway? Planes are safe now, not like when I was young."

"I'll ask, at least," Sabine said diplomatically. "But only when we actually have plans nailed down."

Lu Lin pooh-poohed that. "Oh, just _tell_ him, don't ask. That's what I would do. Act like you're going to get your way and you'll get it."

For some reason, Sabine was guessing that Lu Lin had never met Gabriel Agreste. That kind of stunt would absolutely never fly with him.

There was another peal of laughter from the group on the floor, and Sabine welcomed the distraction, glancing over at the teens again. She was pleased to see the large grin on Adrien's face as the group laughed over the game. He had always seemed far too sad and serious for a kid his age.

For her part, Marinette was having a _fantastic_ time. She had never dreamed that interactions with Adrien would be so easy. She had been laughing and joking with him since Monday, barely a stammer in sight. Even though Adrien had apparently lost any sense of a personal bubble with her- a sign that he considered her one of his close friends- she didn't feel at all uncomfortable. In fact, she was starting to feel just as comfortable with Adrien as she was with Chat Noir.

Since Chat Noir was one of her best friends, Marinette considered that a good thing. And she could handle Chat Noir's flirting like a pro (heartfelt rooftop confessions aside), which was good because Adrien could sometimes get somewhat flirty as well.

As the cousins reset the game, Marinette switched places with Adrien so he could get a chance to play. Once she was settled behind him, Marinette pulled out her phone. It was full of messages from Alya.

_Alya: Halfway through your week with Adrien! How's it going?_

_Alya: if you don't respond I'll assume you're making out with him_

_Alya: Adrien and Marinette sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G_

_Alya: okay seriously though how's it going?_

Marinette sighed and rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the heat rising in her cheeks. Alya had been thrilled to hear that she and Adrien would be hanging out for a week, and she seemed to have entirely forgotten that they would be hanging out with Marinette's extended family, not just each other. She glanced up at Adrien- who was thankfully engrossed in studying the board and wasn't looking at her- then quickly texted back a response.

_Marinette: Today is game day! Adrien has banned me from video games :( We're playing board games now._

_Alya: He BANNED you from video games? And you listened???_

Marinette winced. All it had really taken was some kitten eyes from Adrien and she had caved, but she didn't exactly want to tell Alya that. She would just get teased about her weakness to kitten eyes. And if she was flustered from the teasing, then she would start getting all stammer-y around Adrien and it would be _embarrassing._

_Again._

_Marinette: ...it was either move to board games or put up with him throwing bananas into my path just to mess up my runs. I decided to move._

Alya just send back a string of laughing emojis.

Putting her phone away, Marinette leaned forward to watch the game over Adrien's shoulder. After a minute, Adrien leaned back slightly so his shoulder rested against hers.

Marinette tried not to spontaneously combust. She knew she shouldn't read into it- Adrien was just a very tactile person by nature- but he was just so _close_.

As the game went on, Adrien's lean became a bit more pronounced, except when he leaned forward to see what was going on or to roll the die. She could feel his shoulders shake as he laughed at something that had happened or something that had been said. Marinette let herself return the lean, doing her best to keep her heart from racing.

"Kids! After you finish your game, can you clean up for lunch?"

Marinette sighed as her mother repeated the request in Mandarin for her cousins' benefit. She had wanted to keep sitting there on the floor for a bit longer, but she supposed that they could return to the game after they ate lunch.

"So what's the plan for the rest of the day?" Adrien asked after they finished the game and got it packed up. He stood, then offered Marinette a hand to pull her up to her feet. "Do you know?"

"Sandwiches for lunch," Marinette reported, glancing towards where her mom and one of her aunts were slicing several loaves of bread. Fillings had already been set out. "Then more games this afternoon, and we're going to a pizza place for dinner. Or at least that's the last plan I heard. Maybe some baking lessons with my dad."

Adrien perked up at that. "Oh, that would be so cool! I would love to learn how to make."

Feeling brave, Marinette rolled up on her toes a bit as she glanced over at Adrien. "You know, even if he doesn't do the baking lessons _today_ , you can come over some other time. We'd love to have you."

She was sure that even the sun couldn't beam as brightly as Adrien did in that moment.

 

* * *

 

Adrien arrived home late, pleasantly stuffed full of pizza and the cake that he had helped create that afternoon. He waved to Nathalie and headed upstairs, yawning as he did.

He had had an _amazingly_ fabulous day, but he was absolutely _beat._ He practically sleepwalked through his nighttime routine, content smile on his face the entire time.

Adrien had only just laid down to go to bed when a scream tore through the night.

"Please tell me that's just someone screwing around," Adrien grumbled, turning over and burying his face in his pillow. It certainly wouldn't be the first time- some people just wanted to lure Ladybug and Chat Noir out because they were huge fans, so they would fake an akuma attack. The mayor had since made doing so a fineable offense, which discouraged most people, but there were still a few that thought that the consequences were worth the cost.

"Nope. I can feel Hawkmoth's magic," Plagg announced sleepily. "Close by, too-"

" _HELP!_ "

"I'm getting up, I'm getting up," Adrien groaned, pushing himself out of bed. " _Ugh_. Doesn't Hawkmoth have a life? It's _late_."

Several blocks over, Tikki and Marinette were having an even harder time getting going.

""I'm going to kick Hawkmoth's rear _so hard_ when Chat Noir and I finally face him," Marinette grumbled, dragging herself up the stairs to her balcony. "I wanna _sleep._ "

"Don't you normally stay up later than this on weekends?" Tikki asked politely, floating after Marinette. "At least it isn't two in the morning!"

"I usually also get to sleep in," Marinette pointed out with another grumble. "But my parents expect me up early for the reunion. I hope this fight is over soon so that I'm not sleepwalking tomorrow. At least _you_ can sleep in my purse all day if you want to."

"And I will be, trust me!"

Marinette transformed and headed out the window, squinting around as soon as she got to a good vantage point. A yell caught her attention and she headed towards the source of the noise. She landed on a rooftop right above the akuma- a _kid_ , she noted with some measure of disgust, she was going to _end_ Hawkmoth for targeting kids when they finally found him _-_ and immediately spotted Chat Noir perched on the other side of the street, eyes narrowed as he scanned the akuma for potential possessed items. His expression of intense concentration was interrupted by a large yawn.

They were both going into a fight while incredibly tired. _This_ wasn't going to be fun.

With a shared glance, Ladybug and Chat Noir both pounced down on Up All Night. They had to dodge one of his attacks right away.

"If I wanna stay up all night, all the adults will have to be asleep!" the akuma cackled, shooting beams of light at them from the eyes of his teddy bear. "So say night-night and give me your Miraculous!"

Ladybug grit her teeth and resisted the urge to say something about not being an _adult_ , but she knew it wasn't a good idea. There was no point in confirming to Hawkmoth that she was in a certain age group. It would be stupid. Thankfully, Chat Noir seemed to realize that as well.

Or maybe he was just too tired to banter with the akuma like normal.

The battle dragged on for too long. Part of it was the fact that Up All Night had no qualms about shooting every which way with his laser bear, which made approaching difficult. Part of it was the fact that Chat Noir and Ladybug were both tired and their brains were more focused on not getting hit than in making any progress for the akuma. It was only when Ladybug got a Lucky Charm of a mirror that they were able to reflect Up All Night's beams back at him, sending _him_ right off to sleep. After that, it was no problem to tear the bear in half and release the akuma.

"It's past two," Chat Noir noted with a yawn as they handed the former akuma to a police officer so he could be given back to his mother. "And I have to be up early, too."

"I thought you were supposed to have the summer off?" Ladybug was leaning against a light post, eying the sky. Hopefully she could actually get home before she fell asleep. Chat Noir laughed.

"Not _off_ , exactly. And I'm hanging out with one of my friends and her family this week, so I need to be there on time." Chat Noir yawned again, wide enough to show off all his teeth. "Hopefully they won't mind me falling asleep on them. Good-night, Ladybug."

Ladybug nodded blearily, winding up to leave. "You, too, Chat Noir."

 

* * *

 

On the fourth day of Marinette's family reunion, the Gorilla ended up driving Adrien, Marinette, and her parents over to the hotel where the rest of her extended family was staying because it was raining so heavily.

"So what are we doing today?" Adrien asked after his driver ushered them all inside. He muffled a yawn. He had _not_ gotten enough sleep, even though he had dropped off as soon as he got back in from the akuma fight. "I think it's supposed to rain all day."

Sabine checked her phone and shuffled them towards the elevator. "We were going to poke around town a bit more, but we're going to watch some movies today instead. The group found some in Chinese that have French subtitles so everyone can follow along."

"Oh, goodie," Marinette managed around a yawn. She looked just as tired as Adrien felt, which made him wonder if she had stayed up late working on a design. It wouldn't be the first time she had done that. He would be shocked if they both made it through the movies without falling asleep. "Anything I've heard of?"

"Probably not." Sabine herded them all into the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor. The elevator was pretty cramped, and Adrien found himself pressed up against Marinette's side. "But they should be interesting."

Adrien seriously doubted that anything could be interesting enough to keep either him or Marinette awake for long. It really was a pity that the akuma fight had gone on so late last night, because Adrien was really interested in seeing the kinds of movies that Marinette's relatives had found, but there was no way that he would be able to follow them that well (or translate at _all_ ).

At least he _could_ sleep without causing a bother. If the akuma attack had happened before their touring day, he would have been an absolute mess and wouldn't have been a good guide at all. That wouldn't have left a good impression with Marinette's family, since _they_ wouldn't know that he had a good excuse for not going to bed at a reasonable time.

Tom and Sabine herded them into a room on the end, the same one that they had been in for their Game Day. This time, chairs and couches had been hauled in- Adrien guessed that some of them had been moved, perhaps without the knowledge of the hotel staff- and arranged around the TV. Everyone turned around and waved as they came in.

"There is a spot on the far couch for the kids," one of the aunts called in Mandarin. "And Tom and Sabine, there's chairs over here."

Sabine guided Adrien and Marinette over to their spots, which was probably a good call, considering how tired they were. Even with the guidance, Marinette still managed to walk into one of the couches and promptly yelped when her shin collided with the wood.

Once situated, a discussion broke out about which movie they were going to watch. Adrien tried to follow the conversation for a bit, but people were talking too fast for his scrambled brains. Instead, he relaxed back into the couch and tried to keep his eyes open. Before long, a movie was decided on and it started playing.

Nino would appreciate the soundtrack music, Adrien thought drowsily once they were ten minutes in. It was different than what he normally did, but still energetic. He wasn't sure if it feel the mood of the movie, but he also wasn't following along with the plot very well. There _were_ subtitles in French, and they _did_ help a bit...but Adrien wasn't really feeling alert enough to read things, especially when they were in small-ish print.

Adrien had almost dropped off when a weight against his shoulder startled him. He glanced down and saw Marinette's head leaning against his shoulder. Her eyes were almost entirely closed and her eyelids were drooping lower by the second. Instead of trying to shake her awake, Adrien settled carefully back against the couch cushions, doing his best not to jostle her. He knew full well that leaning back against the couch would just make him fall asleep faster, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He had already lost track of the plot and had no idea which character was which anymore, so he might as well get in a bit of a nap before the movie they were on finished and they moved on to the next one.

Letting his head rest against Marinette's, Adrien closed his eyes and let himself drift off.

 

* * *

 

They were not quite two-thirds of the way through the first movie when Sabine noticed Adrien and Marinette had both fallen fast asleep on the couch. Marinette's cheek was pressed up against Adrien's shoulder, and Adrien's head was nestled against the top of Marinette's head. They looked contented as they snuggled up against each other, Adrien's arm around Marinette and Marinette's entire body angled towards him.

It was _very_ cute.

Sabine wasn't the only one to notice, of course. Tom looked amused as he noticed the two kids sleeping, and some of the visitors had spotted them as well. The aunts in particular had seemed quite interested in the budding relationship, and many had commented on it the previous two days. They had been surprised to hear that the two weren't dating at first- after all, Adrien was _quite_ handsome and was also the only one of Marinette's friends to come to the reunion- but they understood the reason for his presence (and why Marinette was practically glued to his side) once his proficiency in Mandarin was revealed.

Still, there had been _progress_. Before the start of the week, there was no way Marinette would have been comfortable enough with Adrien to fall asleep against him. Now, there would likely be some flailing when she woke up just out of surprise, but it was _progress_.

Sabine couldn't wait until she could help Marinette get ready for dates. Marinette had a number of gorgeous dresses- several of which she had designed herself- hanging unused in her closet. She had just never really had the opportunity to wear them anywhere, and a date would be the _perfect_ opportunity.

The movie rolled on and finally ended. Another movie was put on, and even though this one had lots of action and swelling music, the two teens didn't stir at all. Sabine couldn't keep herself from glancing over frequently, not wanting to miss when either woke up.

Adrien stirred first, yawning and looking groggy. Sabine watched as Adrien woke up more fully, blinking awake and realizing where he was. He glanced down at Marinette, still snoozing on his chest, and only smiled, carefully arranging himself to stretch out his neck and arrange Marinette into a more comfortable position without waking her up. Once settled, his gaze returned to the TV and the movie, though whether he was really taking any of it in was up for debate. The poor boy still looked exhausted.

Sabine had to wonder what had kept him up for half of the night. She suspected that Marinette had probably been inspired by some of the visitor's outfits and wanted to get some ideas down before she forgot them. She had probably lost track of time- a common problem, really, one that Marinette would hopefully grow out of before she got much farther in her schooling- and stayed up later than she had planned to. At least now it was summer and it didn't matter if she slept through part of the day.

Sabine would insist on Marinette going to bed at a proper time tonight, though. She didn't want Marinette getting into a bad habit of staying up late and sleeping half of the day away.

"Should we eat in another room so we don't wake your kids?" one of the aunts asked Sabine. "They look tired. Adrien has dropped right back off."

She looked. Sure enough, Adrien was sleeping soundly again, his chin propped on top of Marinette's head.

"We might take off early this evening to make sure they can go to sleep early," Sabine said. "But let's just turn on the lights and eat in here. They'll just have to get up."

The rest of the group got up, heading over to the small fridge in the corner to pull out the sandwich fixings there. Sabine considered just leaving Adrien and Marinette to sleep until they woke up on their own, then decided against it. They would be hungry when they got up, and there was no point in making the entirety of the group wait for the two of them.

Sabine made sure to snag her phone before heading over to the sleeping teens. After all, there was no point in wasting a perfectly good opportunity to snap a picture of them.

 

* * *

 

Marinette whined and buried her face in her pillow as someone shook her shoulder. She was still _tired_. After finishing the battle, she had gotten most of the way home before her transformation ran out. She had at least managed to get down to street level before she detransformed, but then she had to walk the few blocks left to the bakery, send Tikki in to get a cookie to recharge, and only _then_ she could transform behind a tree and get up to her balcony. After that, she had to wash the dirt from the streets off of her feet before she could actually get into bed and go to sleep. It seemed like she had only just dropped off when she woke up with her mom shaking her shoulder, her alarm ringing unnoticed next to her pillow.

She would have just slept for a bit longer before doing a five-minute get-ready, but then her mom had reminded her that _Adrien_ would be coming over soon and did she _really_ want to have bedhead and morning breath and be running around frantically when her friend came over?

(To be fair, Marinette had considered it. She had gotten more comfortable around Adrien recently, and she knew Adrien wouldn't judge her _that_ much. But she had her pride, so up she got, yawning and grumbling the whole way.)

Her shoulder was shaken again, and Marinette tried to remember what was going on. Adrien had arrived, looking tired, and then his driver brought them over to the hotel because it was raining. Then they went upstairs and sat down on the couch to watch some movies. And then...

Wait. The couch hadn't had any pillows. Had someone moved her to a bed? No, that wasn't right, either. She wasn't laying down, but rather leaning forward on some...thing.

Or was that some _one?_

Marinette blinked as her pillow shifted and made a grumbling sound. It- _he_ , Adrien- started to sit up, then caught her head before she could slip off and leaned right back. Marinette grumbled, supposing that she probably should let Adrien get up, even if he _did_ make a fantastic pillow.

With another grumble, Marinette sat up, blinking blearily. Adrien looked equally as tired as she felt. His hair was a bit mussed, as though his head had been resting against the couch, and his eyes were heavy with sleep.

Had he fallen asleep as well? Had they been _sleeping on top of each other?_

She was going to _die_. There was _no way_ they had done that without her _entire family_ noticing and taking photos of the two of them. Absolutely _no way_. And they were going to tease her and Adrien, except she wouldn't understand and so Adrien would have to deal with the teasing all on his own, and he would get tired of it and not want to come back and hang out with her or her family again, leaving her alone to deal with the relatives that she couldn't communicate with _that_ well and alone without his company for the rest of the summer-

"That was a nice nap," Adrien commented as Marinette sat up. He stretched, long and catlike. Something in his back cracked loudly and he winced slightly. "Are we doing something else now? What time is it?"

"It's lunchtime," Marinette's mother told them. "You've both been asleep for several hours."

Adrien looked just as surprised as Marinette felt. She must have fallen asleep pretty quickly after the first movie started- she remembered exactly _zero_ of it, which was really a pity- and slept straight through.

 _Well_. Apparently she was more tired than she had thought. Marinette knew she would sleep through the first movie, but _two?_ That was a long nap.

"I'm sorry for falling asleep on you," she told Adrien hastily, hoping that she hadn't drooled or anything on his shirt. She tried to covertly check, but Adrien's shirt was dark enough that it was impossible to tell with a quick glance and she didn't want to look like she was staring at his chest. "I didn't mean to-"

Adrien's answering smile was bright. "Oh, it's fine! Really. It's fine. You can use my shoulder as a pillow anytime." He pushed himself up off of the couch, brushing the front of his shirt down as he did. "And I slept well as well."

Marinette's mother waited until Adrien had headed over to join the rest of the group before turning to her with an impish smile playing around her lips. "So, you can sleep on his shoulder any time?"

Marinette turned properly pink. "Maman!"

Her mother only chuckled, ignoring her splutters. "I'm only repeating what he said, darling."

"Mam _an!_ "

 

* * *

 

The last day and a half of the Cheng family reunion went by in a flash, and on Saturday, Adrien got up early one last time to see Marinette's family off to the airport. He hadn't been able to say good-by the previous day since he had been summoned home unexpectedly for a make-up photoshoot (apparently one of his photoshoots from the first week of summer hadn't turned out to his father's standards) while everyone was still busy. After spending so much time with everyone, he didn't want to vanish without a trace.

The cries of joy that had come when the visitors saw him told him that he had made the right decision, even if his father hadn't been pleased that Adrien would be missing his normal Saturday morning piano lesson. And even though the ride to the airport wasn't particularly comfortable- all of the aunts and uncles and cousins _plus_ their bags shoved into their rented vans meant that things were quite cramped- Adrien enjoyed the trip immensely. He got to talk to the cousins again and hear more about what they were going to do over the summer when they got home (one young cousin dominated a good ten minutes of the trip, hanging over the back of the seat and chattering away so fast that Adrien could barely catch anything being said until his mother pulled him back into his seat), then help with unloading all of the luggage once they got to the airport. Once everyone had checked in, he got to say good-bye to all of them personally.

"It's been great to meet you," the last of Marinette's aunts told Adrien, shaking his hand enthusiastically. She beamed at him and Marinette. "And, please- invite us all when you two get married! Even if we won't understand anything during the ceremony, we'd all have a grand time."

Adrien promptly turned red as the entire group of Marinette's relatives nodded their agreement. They giggled at his distress and waved again, calling out good-byes before heading en mass over to the security line.

Next to him, Marinette frowned in confusion. Adrien was redder than she had ever seen him and wasn't saying anything, and her mother was just laughing instead of translating whatever the relatives had said that had thrown him off so much. Her mind went into overdrive, trying to guess at what they might have said. She didn't particularly like any of the options her brain was coming up with. She also didn't like the conspiring look that her mother and her aunts had shared before they left

After several seconds had passed and no one had made any move to translate anything, Marinette's frown deepened and she tugged on Adrien's arm, hoping he could explain. "Adrien? What did they say?"

Adrien only turned redder. The feeling of _oh my god what did they say_ turned into more of an _oh my GOD WHAT DID THEY_ _ **SAY**_ **.** She had almost never seen Adrien looking flustered before, which meant that whatever her aunt had said, it couldn't be good.

"Oh, it was nothing bad, Marinette," her mother said cheerfully, patting her shoulder. "Not at all. We were just making future plans, that was all."

Somehow, that didn't reassure Marinette at all.

 

* * *

 

As they left the airport, Tikki was still giggling away in Marinette's purse. She had been able to understand all of the conversations going on around her, of course- she was a goddess, after all, and she _had_ spent quite a bit of time in China over the years, even if the language had changed some since she was last active there- and oh, it was no wonder Adrien was blushing so much. The poor boy must be so confused about what had just happened, and maybe after a week of time spent with Marinette he was confused about his own feelings towards her Chosen as well.

The two of them were getting all twisted up and confused by their own feelings, and with her knowledge of all of the identities at play- oh, this was going to be a grand old time watching them figure things out.

In the meantime, though, Tikki wasn't going to let Marinette know that she could understand everything that her family had said, because then Marinette would just demand to know what had been said, and Tikki didn't want to tell her.

After all, if Marinette ever found out how much (and how openly) her family _shipped_ her and Adrien, she would _never_ invite Adrien to join her on any of her family adventures ever again.


End file.
